A Vegas-style snow day

This morning at 8:00 am my cell phone rang and since I didn't recognize the number I let it go to voice mail.  I figured I would deal with it later. Oh and for the record, nothing good ever comes from an early morning phone call. Usually someone's dead, in an accident, stranded or in need of a change of clothes. Morbid, yes. But true. Good phone calls usually come late morning when you're dressed and on your third cup of coffee and second load of laundry. But I digress.

Twenty minutes later there's a commotion downstairs and my son comes bursting into my room to say there's no school. My immediate thought is did it snow? What can I say? I'm from the East Coast and days off happen when there's bad weather.

Then Billy comes in and tells me the school is in lock down because of a shooter in the area and all kids are being sent home or re-routed to a nearby middle school.

Whoa! Shooter? Lock Down? What The Eff???

This is a relatively quiet area. Sure we have your routine criminal activity but nothing like this. So I immediately go online while Billy puts on the TV news to find out what's going on. Turns out some guy was shooting an apartment in the complex across the street from my son's school. He drove through the garage and holed himself up inside. It was a standoff.

The school's principal called 2 more times this morning with a recorded message updating us on the situation. Oh and the phone call I missed earlier was the school district telling me what was happening.

Just before noon, a final phone call advised us that the lock down was lifted and students could return to the school but we were already on out way out to lunch with the kid. I figured the day was pretty much done and he wasn't going to learn anything in 2 hours (not counting phys. ed. and lunch/recess) so we kept him home. I can't imagine much learning would be taking place anyway.

I'm just grateful it all worked out and the kids are all safe. Unfortunately, the suspect hasn't been caught, yet.

And I'm trying not to get all panicked and freak out about Chris returning to school tomorrow, despite my mother, the Doom-Sayer, who keeps mentioning that the shooter is still at-large. Thanks, Mom. You can go back to your soap box now and let everyone know that the world is ending soon.